The Known Author

After years bouncing around the courts, the Neil Gaiman-Todd McFarlane trial has wrapped. Heroes can be copyrighted. Gaiman has won $2-5 million from being screwed over. After paying attorney’s fees, Gaiman’s devoting the remaining sum over to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Gaiman, now in the running for Coolest Guy on the Planet, has been called “a shameful opportunist” by McFarlane. “I’m nice too,” said McFarlane. “Just not as nice as Neil.”

With Darren Aronofsky, he helped wow and depress the hell out of filmgoers with Requiem for a Dream. Now hard-boiled novelist Hubert Selby, Jr. is back with Fear X. Nicolas Refn is the director. John Turturro stars. Kubrick’s cameraman, Larry Smith, was enlisted. Selby co-wrote the script. And instead of the Kornos Quartet, it’s Brian Eno on the soundtrack. “The movie is very, very, very depressing,” said the Telegraph. “But it’s also very good. Even our harshest critic couldn’t get out of bed for several days.”

The Age talks with Andrea Levy. Her novels are inspired by racial identity, much of it related to her parents coming from Jamaica to Britain, thinking that they would be considered white, only to be singled out.

Reason No. 3,624 to Vote for Kerry: States are getting creative with their budgets. Denied resources by a federal government too busy cutting taxes for the rich and spending its way out of control, Alabama has an unusual idea. In an effort to buy school textbooks, a Bingo for Books proposal is on the table.

A Pennsylvania public library has placed five sexual instruction books on the reference shelves, rather than the stacks. Now residents hoping to learn about positions other than missionary or the joys of gay sex will have to do so at a public refectory table, instead of the privacy of their own homes. The number of successful orgasms in Broomall, PA is expected to drop by 16% over the next year.

A chat with J.K. Rowling revealed the following: There may be more than seven books. Harry Potter will continue growing up. Harry Potter will enter a Hogwarts halfway house.

So who is National Book Critics Award winner Edward Jones?

1. He received a telephone message from his agent urging him to continue.
2. Here’s an excerpt. The novel, for those who don’t know, is about a black slave owner.
3. Jones began to write after being let go from a job he held for 19 years condensing articles for a trade journal. The novel has sold 100,000 copies.
4. Jones is 53 and lives alone in a Washington, D.C. apartment.
5. He grew up poor, moving “18 times in 18 years.” His mother could not read or write.
6. Jones couldn’t make friends, so he read books (including comic books).
7. Here’s an NPR link for audiophiles.